Whence comes your job satisfaction?
Dear friends,
Female Science Professor blog recently had a posting and comments about the issue of where female scientists find their satisfaction. She used the word "whence" and I couldn't resist using it too.
She listed these choices for roots of satisfaction in a science career:
A. In your department, your close colleagues at your institution
B. In your field, colleagues far afield whom you correspond with and see at conferences, including your past mentors, former fellow graduate students or postdocs, etc.
C. Your research and your own research group interactions.
In the comments, several people suggested they also found satisfacion in
D. Colleagues in other departments at their own institution.
People usually listed some combination of these, such as ABC, C, C>B, etc.
I would say ABCD now, but at times it has been C alone that satisfied me, with the rest providing mainly frustration.
What would you way about your own satisfaction?
My answer is, none of the above. My satisfaction comes from my students, whether we are talking about students in a classroom or teaching laboratory, or the students I mentor and otherwise train in the research lab. Maybe that counts as "C?"
If so, C>D=B.
Also I get a lot of job-related satisfaction from interacting with faculty in our Program in Feminist and Gender Studies, and in interacting with staff who share a similar vision of science education with me.
Yeah, I know puzzled. I like literary stuff and I was taken with the work when Female Science Professor used it on her blog.
But about that certainty of facts, we have to admit to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, to what seems to be a major role for stochastic processes in early development, to all sorts of evidence that a fact is not so solid as we once thought.
Also, back in the whence times, I think the impartiality of scientists was a given, whereas now that we study the psychology of scientists and the sociology of science, it seems that competition can drive a lack of impartiality in presenting evidence: surprise. Not. Humans are human, the early scientists just wanted to ignore/suppress that fact.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Laura,
Why whence? It sounds so literary, but we're all probably post post post modern, or some such thing, or perhaps we're throwbacks to an earlier time when truth looked more certain.
I have to say, all four, ABCD! It is kinda suprizing to me after all the bitching I've done over the years, but honestly, I do find support in all these groups.
Hi Chem lover,
I'm glad to hear about supportive colleagues in the department. I've heard things like that at my own college too. But apparently that's not always true. I guess it pays to check around during interviews to see how supportive the prospective colleagues are to other women, if possible. Of course, for women who break the ice, becoming the first woman in the department, that's more difficult.
cheers,
Laura
I was the first woman in my department but all the guys were always very supportive. Now there are more of us around, but I am picking A and I want to say these departmental colleagues are mostly men.
A and C for me. I must admit I didn't do as much as I could have to keep in touch with B, my former colleagues and mentors outside of my own institution.
C>A for me. I"m not sure how visible I am so B is something that, as my former mentors have retired, I've enjoyed less and less.
A for me. My departmental colleagues have been very supportive most of my career. I have seen some horror stories from female friends in physics and chemistry, though.
I want to answer this, but satisfaction has been pretty elusive in my career. I had a few supporters in A, B, C, and D but others were real roadblocks. I can't pick one with confidence.
Although my lab mates were supportive always, I had a bit of envy of the brilliance of others' students at times. I think B (colleagues out of my place) have been my main source of satisfaction through my whole career.
Early in my career, I would have picked C my wonderful lab mates and D, others at my institution. Now, I have a better relationship with A and B so I rest on all four.
FBP
